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Pasque-flowers 



FROM 



Pike's Peak 



A STORY 



BY 



SUSAN T. DU NBA 



BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPAKD PUBLISHERS 

1SS5 




<5'^ ■ 



COPYRIGHT, 

iSSs, 

BY SUSAN T. DUNBAR. 



PRESS OF I-ANNING I'KINTING CO., 
NEWTON UPl'ER FALLS, MASS. 






Easter, iS8j. 

Searching my books to-day there fluttered trom the leaves 
of one a pressed flower still delicately beautitul. It Avas the 
anemone ox pasque-Jioiver of Pike's Peak, and, when it came 
to me some years ago, just in the Easter season, from its 
far Western home, it was fresh with life and beauty. On the 
Easter-tide of this New Year goes forth its simple life story, 
an earnest of the season's promise. 



PASOUE - FLOWERS. 




NE early March morning a little bunch 
of gray fuzz nestled among the dead, dry 
leaves of last year's anemones. It felt a 
little lonesome for there wasn't another 
l)unch of gray fuzz to be seen ; but this was a partic- 
ularly brave little Colorado anemone, and was dressed 
up warm in her chinchilla furs which she kept close 
around her, and drew up over her head. The anem- 
ones always come out early in Colorado, but Spring 
was late herself this year and none of Anemone's sisters 
had been willing to leave home with her quite so soon. 
It was well that she was early for a long journey to 
Massachusetts was before her, and a mission was hers 
to perform, though of these things she did not know^ 
No w^onder she was lonely, for there she w^as all by 



6 PAS(;iLTE-FLOWERS. 

herself on the north slope of a foothill, where the sun 
did not come, and with not even a spear of green grass 
to keep her company ; everything was brown and 
dead, vShc had almost w^ished she had not come, 
when a little bird flew down singfino: a w^elcome to 
her. Oh, how glad she was to hear the song; and 
she felt so happy that her heart began to swell and she 
had to push her fur bonnet oft' a little way just for 
breathing room. Now the birds and the flowers al- 
ways remember each other, and these two talked 
together in their own language telling how happy 
they were to see each other again. 

"Am I the first flower out, did you say. Little Bird ?" 
asked the anemone. But before the bird could answer 
her, a little breeze came hurrying by and said : 

•'Oh, no indeed! but we are glad you are here. 
You are the first anemone. I met the Townsendias, 
dear little Peeps-o'-Spring /call them, on the Twenty- 
second of February, up in the Garden of the Gods, 
cuddled up against some rocks." 

"Was it nice and warm there, Little Breeze?" 
asked Anemone. 

"Yes indeed ! the sun was pouring such a quantity 
f)f heat all around them that I was warmed clear 



PASqLTE-FLOWERS. 7 

through before I got near enough to kiss them," said 
the breeze. " But I must hurr}- on now, good-bv," 
and oft' he went and the Httle bird with him. 

" The Townsendias always get the warm phices," 
and the anemone ahiiost pouted as she talked to her- 
self. " But then, I don't know why they shouldn't 
when they come so early, and they have no fur cloaks 
like ours to keep them ^varm," and Anemone nestled 
down into hers. '^ Peeps-o'-Spring, Little Breeze 
said. That's a real pretty name, much better than 
Townsendia, I think, and when my sisters come I'm 
going to tell them the new name, and they must call 
those little blossoms bv it." 

Just then Anemone peered out of her hood which 
had come open when the bird came, and the first look 
showed her, on the opposite slope, a cluster of Peeps- 
o'-Spring between a rock and the bare roots of an old 
pin on; 

" No wonder the sun loves them," she thought. 
" How white they are, like the snow that is up on 
the mountains." 

••ril tell you what I think about it. Anemone," 
said Little Breeze as he whisked up the slope ; ^^ I 
think the snow doesn't like it verv well because it has 



S PASC^UE-FI.OWERS. 

to take itself oil to tlie mountains and j^lains so often 
throui^li the winter, instead of lying around quietly 
down here and in town where the children are. I've 
known any number of snow-flakes to pile themselves 
up t()<i,-eLher in that same place, and a good many other 
places like it, and manage to stay there all winter, 
thinking tliev are out of the way and won't be found 
out. But the sun always does find them, and every 
day there are fewer and fewer of them till finallv 1 
come and there isn't a flake to be seen. 

'•One day I was lazy and didn't get round till late, 
and I was astonished to see what I thought \vas a hand- 
ful of snow-flakes up in that nook. Of course I went 
right u]D there to find out the reason, and there were 
those flowers and not snow-flakes at all ; I think thev 
must be the spirit of the snow, or something else, I 
don't know what. We whispered and w hispered to 
ihem to tell me- l)ut the\ won't sa\- a word, and onh' 
look at me with their yellow eyes ; they couldn't shake 
their heads l^ecause they ha\ en't an\- stems, the\- grow 
so close to tile ground. At night they fold their 
white rays o\er their eyes, and if you will wacli 
them to-night you will see that they are lipped 
with pink on the under side. Thex are dear little 



PASGiLTE-FLOWERS. 9 

things," and the breeze sighed itself across to diem. 

Anxious to see all that was going on, Anemone 
lifted her head and stretched up out of the dead leaves, 
and found she had grown almost an inch. She found 
the sky blue and cloudless, and troops of birds 
and breezes went fluttering by, to all of whom she 
nodded gaily. 

"Mistress Spring is here surely now, and it is high 
time my sisters came ; I must send them postals to 
hurry out. It won't be long before the Mountain- 
Lilies are here, and we must be ready to give them a 
hearty welcome, they are so timid and so delicate 
looking." 

So to ever}' breeze that came, and to every bird that 
flew low enough, she gave her messages. She told 
the breezes that they must gather all the w armth from 
the sun that they could possibly carry, and must spread 
it thickly over the northern slopes, and in all the cool 
places where the sun did not send its rays. She told 
the birds to give her sisters just such a welcome as she 
had had, and she charged the birds and breezes all to 
do everything they could to make the Colorado hills 
and plains beautiful. She sent numberless quick little 
despatches down her own furry stem to the rootstock 



lO PASCiyE-Fr.OWERS. 

uiuleii^iound, (this was ane?none patens you see) with 
directions to send them on and on till all anemone 
households in Colorado knew that it was time to be up 
and doing. She sent them word that the breezes were 
already at work <=^athering sunshine warmth for the 
northern slopes, and the breezes, anemones ought to 
know, are on these foot hills of Pike's Peak, as busy 
as bees. When night came she had finished her letters 
and messages, every one with the postscript: *' don't 
forget your furs," and, knowing the answers would 
begin to come in by morning, she wrapped herself up 
snuglv in her soft gray cloak, while watching the sun 
kissing her neighbors good night, and leaving pink 
blushes on their white rays. 

Sure enough, in the morning there were several 
fuzzy heads all about our little friend, and cheerily 
she greeted her sisters. They were not all dressed 
in cliincliilla though ; there were seal brown furs, 
and squirrel furs, and others nearly as white as 
ermine ; and some had on green cloaks that looked 
almost as if the anemones had forgotten the post- 
script, and had l)rought their leaves with them 
instead. But there wasn't any mistake ; there 
couldn't l)e, l)ecause Colorado anemones never want 



PASqUE-FLOWERS. II 

their leaves till they are about through blossoming. 

When the\' had chattered and talked with each 
other, and the birds and the breezes, about their 
night's journey from home, about the messages the 
rootstocks and the rootlets had sent to their friends 
the air, the sunshine, the snow and the clouds, and 
had made up their minds that the weather was 
so warm they had better get out of their furs as 
quickly as possible, Anemone shook her head wisely, 
and said : 

" Dear little sisters, don't be too hasty; you know 
I have been here longer than you, and I assure you, 
you will need your wraps for several days yet. These 
sunny breezes won't be with us all the time, and when 
they are not here we shall have to trust to our cloaks 
to keep us w^arm." 

Then she told them what the breeze had told her 
about the snow and the Peeps-o'-Spring. " Last 
night I had some company," she went on to say, 
'' and wdiile you are resting from your journey I wall 
tell you about it. 

"I was very homesick yesterday morning after I 
got here, and when I went to sleep last night I did 
wish some of you were here w^th me. I think it must 



12 I'AS(^rE-FLOWEi;S. 

have been ([iiitc laic when 1 heard somebody calling 
' Anemone, Anemone.' A m^Vi wind was shaking- 
me ruilely, and wl^.en I opened my eyes a ray from a 
sliooiinij^ slar ahnost ])linded me. Altogedier, I was 
Startled, for I dioufj^ht none of you could have come so 
quickly in answer to my message ; but when I had 
taken down a corner of my cloak there stood, looking 
up into mv face, all those little flowers that are up 
there by that rock. 

•••Dear Anemone,' they said, ^ we are very glad 
to see \()u, and we would have come down to cheer 
vou when you were lonely, but it is only in the night 
that we can travel, so here, we are now. In the 
morning troops of your sisters will be about you, and 
\()u will be merrv together. We heard wdiat Little 
Bird cold you. and he was onl}- partly right. We are 
not the spirit of die snow any more than you are. 
All [he Howers around here are the foster-chil(h"en of 
die snow and the !^un. and the earth is their mother. 
The snow has gone from here now, but it is up in the 
mouiuains where it is hastening the coming of odier 
flowers. Way up on Pike's Peak, 8,000 feet above 
us, and over 14,000 feet above the flowers that grow 
near the sea, it will nourish and shelter the tinv blue 



PASqiLTE-FLOWERS. I3 

For-get-me-nots and Summer Beauties that are going 
to blossom up there in August. We think that Little 
Breeze was jealous ; he*s a good little fellow, but in- 
clined to be airy and fitful. The snows always gave 
him a cool greeting because he likes to plague the 
Hakes, and scatter them about when they are looking 
for a good place to rest. But no matter about him, 
we all know him and understand him. 

"'We early flowers have a special work to do. 
Anemone ; since so many tired and sick people have 
come to live in Colorado Springs and Manitou, these 
homes of sunshine and pure air, we must be just as 
beautiful and lovely as God will let us; we must let 
them see that these brown plains and foot hills have 
just as fair flowers as those that grow in the East : 
and so we can cheer their loneliness and help them to 
love their adopted home. We cannot come down 
here again to see you. Anemone, but we can w^atch 
you from our home near the rock. We shall soon be 
through blossoming, and shall take our long sleep till 
next spring comes. 'Tis nearly daybreak now, and 
we must bid you good-by, and be home before the 
sun lights up the summit of Pike's Peak.' 

" They hadn't given me a chance to say a word, 



14 PASqi'E-FLOWERS. 

and tliev were all talking together ; but I was looking 
at them all the time, and I made a discovery about 
them. I don't believe the birds or the breezes know 
it !" Here Anemone paused to note the effect this 
announcement would have upon her sisters who were 
listening intentlv. 

" Go on, go on, dear sister, and tell us what.vou 
saw. Please hurrv, we want to hear so much," said 
all the anemones together, and there was a thrill of 
anxious expectation in their tiny voices. 

While Anemone had been talking a little bird had 
been listening, and had stopped a little breeze that he 
might listen too ; when Anemone said she did not 
think the birds and breezes knew, thev were s:reath' 
puzzled. 

''Tell us, tell us," twittered the bird, and the breeze 
whistled -Oh yes, do!" 

"Well," said Anemone, "I didn't know you tw^o 
were listening here ; you are very impolite," and 
Anemone and all her sisters flushed a faint purple 
tint, they were so indignant. 

'• Oh, how pretty, how pretty, you are!" sang the 
l)ird, and the breeze played among them so pleasantly 
that they couldn't help shaking ofl' their furs a little 



PASQLTE-FLOWERS. I5 

to feel its freshness, and they all together urged their 
sister to go on. 

''I always thought," began Anemone, "that Peeps- 
o'-Spring had white petals, and that their yellow 
centers were much like our stamens and pistils." 

" So did w^e !" chorused her sisters. The little bird 
hopped about as if he wanted to say something, and 
the breeze seemed restless ; but Anemone hastened to 
say, " They haven't, and that's my discovery." 

" I knew it !" sang the bird. 

"So did I!" piped the breeze. "Those centers 
are clusters of wee bits of yellow blossoms, and each 
tiny blossom has its ow^n mites of stamens and pistils, 
just the same as all asters have and sunflowers too." 

" Yes," said the bird, " but I'd like to know what 
the white rays are for that look so much like petals ; 
I couldn't find out." 

"You go to bed so early. Bird, in that high home 
of yours, that you have never seen them draw up 
those white rays close about them when they go to 
sleep. They keep the little- blossoms warm all night, 
that's what they are for ;" and the breeze felt very 
proud that he had been able to tell the bird something 
so important. 



1 6 PASqL^E-FLOWERS. 

Poor Anemone had felt quite cruslied to have the 
story taken away from her so completely, but now she 
brightened up \'er3' happily and said, before any one 
sliould interrupt her : 

''I saw those wdiite rays used for something else 
last night. When the flowers were ready to go home, 
each yellow cluster clasped hands just as tight as it 
could, and then the \\hite rays ti^oped up on their 
points, and they went rolling down the hill like 
wheels, and they went down so fast that they kept on 
rolling up the opposite hill till they got to their own 
little corner. They looked like the shooting stars up 
in the sky." 

Little Breeze was so provoked because Anemone 
had scan \vhat he had not, that he started oft' without 
a word, resolving that he wouldn't go to bed at all 
that night till he had seen these wdieeling flowers too, 
though he half believed that Anemone had dreamed 
it, for he sometimes had queer dreams that really 
seemed true. 

Little Bird was expressing his delight to the anem- 
ones in a gush of music, when the sun began to drop 
behind Pike's Peak, and he knew he must fly to 
his home which was in one of the holes in the Qvent 



PASQUE-FLOWERS. 1 7 

rocks that form the gateway to the Garden of the 
Gods. He sang all the way home, and then sang to 
the other birds the story Anemone had told. 

The next day the anemones found their fur cloaks 
very necessary, for the provoked little breeze had 
persuaded his brothers to keep out of the sun as much 
as they could, so as to be very cool and chilly to the 
anemones when blowing around their home. But 
the birds came in flocks to cheer them, and the little 
breezes, who are nearly ahvays good-natured, couldn't 
keep up their pretended coldness very long, and soon 
birds, breezes and flowers were happy together. 

So day after day went by, and the an,emones grew 
large and strong and tall, and the whole slope w^as 
bright with their beautiful blossoms. There was 
every shade of purple, from the darkest to the palest 
lavender, and their fuzzy coats added a quaintness to 
their beauty wdiich made them all the more attractive. 
There were anemones of all sizes and ages, for they 
had been coming out ever since the day the first one 
came. There were the babies still bundled up. 
Others had thrown back their cloaks so far that each 
purple cup rested in a cup of fuzz. Older ones still 
were growing out of theirs so completely that these 



1 8 PASC^rE-FI.OWEKS. 

fuzzy cups were from a half incli to two inches back 
on the stems, and the purple and la\ ender cups were 
openings wide and showing their silver linin2,s. 
Every blossom was almost filled with the <.>;olden 
stamens and the silvery brush of pistils. Their cloaks 
had not changed except to become more fuzzy, and 
they would be kept about on the stems somewhere as 
long" as the blossoms lasted. 

They had, indeed, done as the Peeps-o'-Spring had 
suggested : made this northern slope very beautiful : 
and the\- knew that sisters (some of them every shade 
of blue) were making other places just as lovely. 
They knew that flowers slighted the northern slopes 
usually till late in summer ; but, because of their 
warm furs the anemones felt that they could easily 
make these lonely places attractive. 

The tallest anemones, six and eight inches high, 
could see on the opposite slope (the south one) , that 
a few Townsendias still lingered as if waiting to greet 
the first Mountain-Lilies, whose pale green leaves 
were just breaking through the ground ; they knew 
that on the sunny plains and hill-sides, and even in 
the hard streets of the town, these lily-leaves were 
cracking the earth and reaching up into the light. 



PASQLTE-FLOWERS. 1 9 

How did :hey know? The birds and the breezes 
told diem and carried their greetings to and fro. And 
of other things the birds and breezes told them. 

AT OT many days after Anemone had welcomed her 
■•-' sisters, a party of boys went by this very slope, and 
the sharp eyes of one of them espied our little friend : 
she was quite tall compared with her sisters, and had 
thrown back her furs enough to give glimpses of her 
six purjDle sepals — anemones' sepals are so very 
pretty that petals are not necessary — and she, with 
some of her sisters, was soon on the way to the town 
in this lad's hands. 

''The sick man shall have them," the boy said to 
himself, and the anemones soon found themselves 
transferred to the sick man's hands. 

" Wild flowers, wild flowers," he murmured as he 
buried his feverish cheeks in their cool softness ; and 
Anemone felt a drop of moisture foil on her purple 
cup. Her little heart ached for him, for she knew 
that he was homesick, and she remembered how" she 
had felt alone and away from her sisters. She wanted 
very, very much to tell him she had come to cheer 
him, but she trembled so she could not speak. 



20 PASC^UE-FLOWERS. 

•• Ah I you bring the fresh, earthy smell that comes 
with the first spring rains, little blossoms," said the 
man at last, taking long, deep breaths of their fresh- 
ness. '^ There, you are like yoiu- IMassachusetts 
sisters, but I never should ha\e thought you anemones 
by your looks," and the sick man fell to thinking ; 
pleasant thoughts and pictures came to him, the 
anemones knew by the light in his eves, and the 
smiles that lingered about his lips. The anemones 
smiled back to him, and brightened themselves with 
full draughts of the water in which they had been 
placed. When evening came Anemone tried hard to 
keep her blossom-cup open, after the others had 
closed ; but, tired too, sleep at last overcame her, and 
she nodded with her sisters. 

Strange doings the anemones saw next morning. 
On the table near them lay half of a large raw potato. 
Pillowed in his easy chair the sick man sat holding in 
his thin w^hite hand the other half, and feebly scraping 
out some of the pulp. After a little he took up Anem- 
one and put her into the hollow he had made ; tlien 
when he had prepared the other half in the same way, 
two of Anemone's sisters were placed in this hollow 
which was just large enough for them. 



PASQUE-FLOWERS. 21 

Little Breeze had come into the window early that 
morning, and with some of his brothers had been 
playing abont among the flowers and books and 
papers lying on the table ; he had brought loving- 
messages from the sisters on the hill-side, and was 
charged with many to take back. He was as much 
interested in the doings of the sick man as the anem- 
ones, and had quietly hidden himself in Anemone's 
sepals, where they talked together sofdy while they 
watched him. 

"What does it all mean, Breeze.^" whispered 
Anemone. 

"I think it must be that he- is going to shut you 
and your sisters up in the potato and send you 
home," said Little Breeze. 

" Send us home ! What good woidd it do to send 
us back ? We should surely wither up and die on the 
cold ground, and we wanted to do some good, and 
cheer him as we did last night," grieved Anemone. 

" Oh, I don't mean to your home Anemone ; I 
mean to /iz's home fiir in the East, nearly 2,500 miles 
from here ; it's where the East Winds live too. You 
will have a long journey of three days and four nights ; 
but vou will have the moisture of your potato house 



22 PAS(^UE-FLO\VEKS. 

to live upon ; it will be dark, I know, but you will 
not mind that, ]")ecause you \\ill prol:>ablv sleep most of 
the way, and when you get to the end of yoiu" journey 
you will be all the brighter and fresher. 

•• Did anemones ever travel so far before, and is it 
perfectlv safe, dear Breeze?" She felt a little faint- 
hearted to think of what was before her. 

'' I never knew of flowers travelling so before, in a 
potato ; but they must have, because I heard somebody 
telling the sick man how to fix the potato for you. I 
don't see why it should not be safe enough, for you 
are going with the letter that the man is writing nows 
and a great many letters are sent from here, and a 
great many come here too ; I've read lots and lots of 
them," and the breeze liegan to feel like stirring about 
again. '"I'll go now and read the letter he has written, 
and perhaps it will tell just where you arc going." 

But the breeze was too late to see much ; the letter 
was sealed and directed, and all he could make out 
was Boston^ Alass. So back he and some of his 
companions whisked and told Anemone ; said good- 
by to her and her sisters, and sent their love to their 
brothers in the East; wished them a pleasant journev, 
and blew off outside the window which the man was 



PASQITE-FLOWERS. 23 

shutting, because the breezes had become so frisky 
that they were disturbing everything in the room thai: 
they could move or rustle. Outside the window, 
Litde Breeze waited to see the last of the anemones. 
Then he blew out to the foothill and told the anem- 
ones there what had happened, and that the sick man 
had tied the two halves of the potato tightly together 
with their sisters inside, and then tied the potato 
in strong paper, and after w^riting something on it, 
*•• the directions" he supposed, it had gone off with 
the letter to the post office. 

" Do you think the sick man was angry.?" asked an 
anemone anxiously. 

"Angry ! Well, I should say he was not,'' said the 
breeze. " He w^as smiling and humming, and trying 
to whistle like me all the time he was fixing the 
anemones' trunk ; he couldn't whistle much though," 
and thereupon the breeze began to whistle himself out 
of breath to show wdiat a whistle should be. 

Three days and four nights the anemones travelled ; 
they were very much alarmed at times when their 
potato trunk was taken up and tossed about, lest it 
should be broken ; but it had been tied securely and 
no harm came. At last, on the morning of the fourth 



24 PASC^UE-FLOWERS, 

(lav, they knew they had reached their journey's end, 
for the mighty rumbHng had ceased, and all was quiet 
outside their dark prison. Gentle fingers were taking 
away their covering, and suddenly they were in a 
blaze of light it seemed to them after the long dark- 
ness of their journey. 

This was the way three Colorado anemones came 
to the '' City of East Winds." They were bright and 
fresh, and not one whit the worse for their trip. Lov- 
ing hands received them, and many were the words of 
welcome that they heard. Anemone found she had 
grown quite out of her cloak, and her sisters had 
grown also, but were not yet much more than opening 
their cups. They were glad of the water in which 
the}' were placed, but when they drank of it they 
could not help thinking how much nicer was the last 
which they had had to drink. 

'' That water," said Anemone, " came pure and 
fresh from the springs and melting snows on Pike's 
Peak ; nothing could be purer than that." 

'' How cold and cloudy it looks out of doors," said 
one of her sisters. " It isn't much like our beautiful 
sky, is it.?" 

''No," said the smallest sister, "but it's warm in 



PASQUE-FLOWERS. 25 

this room ; we must not expect such clear bright days 
as we have at iiome," and the Httle flower sighed very 
softly for that far oft' home. 

Just then there came a rattling at one of the win- 
dows, and die anemones heard a whistling that 
reminded them of their friends, the breezes. The sun 
had covered his face completely with clouds, and a 
company of breezes, shrill and sharp, came crowding 
through a small opening in the window. The anem- 
ones couldn't help shivering \\hen they rushed down 
to them and shook them heartily, but not intending to 
be rougfh ; it was their natural manner. 

" Ha, ha! well, well I here you are I Glad to see 
you, anemones all ; glad to see you in Boston," and 
the breezes shook the anemones again, they were so 
glad to see them. 

" Heard two days ago you were coming," contiimed 
the breezes. " ' Old Prob.' received a message from 
Pike's Peak that you had started. When we were 
whirling and tearing around the Signal Station 
down town this morning, we blew down into the 
Post Ofhce windows to make a little stir, and saw 
your queer trunk come in ; its paper cover was 
torn some. We followed the letter-carrier up here. 



26 PASqi'E-FI.OWERS. 

and tried to get into his bag, but it was too tight." 
" Yes," said another breeze, " and then we l:)lew 
round the corner to have some fun with the school- 
children, and when we got back we couldn't tell at 
which door 3^ou had been left, so we've been flying 
about the windows on this street ever since. We saw 
you a fe^v minutes ago — lucky we found the crack in 
the window, we were about out of breath." 

" We are glad to hear from our brothers," said 
another breeze more quietly. While the anemones 
had given them the greetings brought from home, the 
warmth in the room had subdued some of the breezes, 
and the friskiest fellows had gone oft". " We hope our 
western brothers will do what is expected of them 
with the help of the sun ; you see we are rather 
damp and rough here, particularly at this time of the 
year, and a good many of our people need to go where 
the air is dry ; so we recommended Colorado ; her air 
is dry enough we should judge." 

Somebody was closing the window, and the March 
winds were shut out entirely. They had made the 
room chilly, and the anemones nestled close together 
thinking that the old friends were the best. They fell 
to wondering how they should like the Massachusetts 



PASQUE-FLOWERS. 27 

anemones if they should meet them, as they hoped 
they should, when they heard the lady, who had been 
so glad to see them, say somediing about Colorado 
Springs ; and h'ing near them they recognized the 
letter the sick man had written and sent with them on 
their eastern journey. The lady was reading the 
letter now, and listening, they heard this: "I send 
to you my Easter greetings, these beautiful anemones : 
they came to me like rays of hope in a very loneh" 
hour, when despairing and discouraged ; I take the 
promise of renewed health and strength that tliese 
pasque-flowers bring to me ; truly they have been to 
me, a prisoner here in Colorado, real ' Picciolas^' 
and I bless them with all my heart." 

The lady was crying softly as she kissed the 
anemones, but they were happy tears. Although the 
anemones did not exactly understand all that they had 
heard, they comprehended enough to feel that they 
had accomplished much good in their short stay with 
the sick man. They had brought good cheer to him, 
and to the lady, their new friend ; and they knew they 
could repay her loving care best by doing all in their 
power to live and to be beautiful, although they 
missed their mother earth sadlv. 



28 PASqi'E-FLOWERS. 

They knew that by-and-by their pretty purple cups 
would fade and droop, and spill the golden pollen ; 
that their tiny seeds would never mature, nor the 
many seed-vessels ripen and form the beautiful feathery 
clusters like the akenes of the clematis. They were 
sorry that their friend could not see their sisters grow- 
ing in loveliness on the hill-side home. They knew 
just how pleasant that whole north slope of the foot- 
hill was, and would still be when the blossoms w^ere 
gone, for then the leaves would be out, and the plume- 
like akenes would be as fair as many blossoms. 

One day as they dreamed in the warmth of the 
heai^th fire, for outside the March w inds still blustered, 
and the clouds swept quickly across the face of the sun, 
a few delicate blossoms, white and palest pink, with 
fresh green leaves, were placed in the glass with them. 
Somehow, Anemone, who w^as beginning to droop a 
little, felt instantly that these were her sisters of the 
woods, ane7nane nemorosa^ and she thrilled with 
delight as she told her thoughts and lovingly greeted 
the new comers. 

•'Yes, we are your sisters, dear Windflowers of 
the Plains," said a white anemone. " On our way 
the March winds told us that ^ou had come, bringing- 



PASQUE-FLOWERS. 29 

tidings of hope and jo}' from the sick man ; liow 
happy it must make you. March winds said they had 
not talked with you much, for they were rather cold 
for you, although you had come in your fur cloaks. 
They said that the March winds in your home were 
w^armed by the bright sun on their way from Pike's 
Peak, where thev are even colder than the March 
winds here, but not so damp and chill. They told 
the woods, when they bent and tossed the heads of the 
tall pine trees, that you w^ere coming, and so we ha^■e 
hurried ourselves, hoping we might see you ; it is 
a little early for us to be out." Then the anemones 
nestled together, and shared the' warmth of the furs as 
well as they could ; thus closely companioned the>- 
proceeded to tell to one another the family histories. 
Day by day they dreamed the time away, with 
loving reminiscences of their homes and their friends, 
till it seemed to the western anemones as if they had 
always know the Windflowers, and to the Windflowers 
almost as if they had been to Colorado. And day b\- 
day while they dreamed, they were also growing old. 
and the oldest anemone felt very old indeed ; and one 
evening when she fell asleep she knew she should 
never lift her head again. But she was happy, she 



30 PASQUE-FLOWERS. 

and her sisters too. They knew from the daily letters 
that the sick man was growing stronger, and that he 
was getting to love their dear home in the West which 
would always now have to be his ; and they knew 
that the ladv was going to Colorado soon. Many 
times had she told them of the comfort they had 
brought to her, and on this nisrht when Anemone was 
dying, she took them all, the anemones of the plains 
and of the woods, and placed them between the leaves 
of her bible, where she said she could keep them 
always, symbols to her of Faith and Hope and Love. 

'• In all places, then, and in all seasons, 

Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings, 
Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, 
How akin they are to human things. 

" And with childlike, credulous affection 
We behold their tender buds expand ; 
Emblems of our own great resurrection. 
Emblems of the bright and better land." 



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